Wishing you a happy new you!

By Olufemi  Orunsola

Contrary to generally accepted popular culture, I am not really wishing you, yes you, my reader, or anyone out there a happy new year. Rather, I am wishing you a happy new YOU!(Please note the emphasized word).

Before you raise much ado about my stand in this instance however, I implore you to kindly spare me a few minutes of your precious time to read this piece.

If you check your calendar what you actually see are basically the same set of numbers and alphabets typical of every other year in the Gregorian calendar adopted in most parts of the world today. Those numbers and alphabets primarily indicate the days if the week, weeks of the month and months of the year and that is not new or peculiar to any known new year!

Bearing the chronological arrangement and rearrangements of those alphabets and numbers in particular, nothing is essentially new in the New Year except in the cosmological sense thereof alluded to by those who claim to have knowledge of the sequences and consequences of such numerology for our well being on planet earth.

Unfortunately, only a very few mortals in our world actually possess such esoteric knowledge yet virtually everyone jumps on the band wagon of basking in the euphoria of a new year as a matter of habit and yearly social ritual.

Taking a clue from Newton’s laws of motion therefore, I would rather wish you a happy new you than wishing you a happy new year based on the aforementioned understanding of life’s natural order.

Newton’s first law of motion states that:

An object either remains at rest or continues to move at a constant velocity, unless it is acted upon by an EXTERNAL FORCE” (Emphasis mine).

In effect, I am reasoning to challenge the popular social notion that a  new year, which is in a sense, basically just like every other year should be the focal point of our wishes to mankind at such a time as this.

In another sense, the new year, being the object of focus in the popular new year wishes, is often erroneously portrayed as having the capacity to unleash or let out its peculiar contents, with its own peculiar constant velocity to mankind.

Suffice to say here that the Holy Writ affirms that “sufficient unto every day are the evil thereof” as documented by Saint Mathew in the 6th Chapter and 34th verse of his synoptic gospel.

My deductive inference to Newton’s first law of motion therefore, is that, you are the real focal point of your own year. Hence, it is not the newness of the year that guarantees your happiness. Rather, you and your aura, your mien, your mindset, your attitudes, your character and your skills set, and social signature, social network/networth and the overall grace that you carry as well as the sum total of your personality are the primary determinants of your happiness in the new year!

That is what can be aptly described as your own external force that drives your own objects and affairs in the New Year! In order words, you need more of your gut plus your God behind you! Both are not the same though. Somany people lay claim to having a great God on their side but often they personally lack the guts to make bold, winsome moves that will guarantee their happiness according to the will of God while adding value to humanity. Others simply have so much guts and self confidence but are so godless and ruthless! We should not be caught in either of these extremes this year.

Every attempt to shift the focus or responsibility for your happiness to an ethereality like the new year itself is tantamount to self delusion and must therefore be seen as it is – sheer irresponsibility!

While one’s external socioeconomic, political and ecological realities all have significant roles to play in one’s wellbeing in life, my emphasis here remains that you and I have to resolve to be real humans by exercising our human volition appropriately.

Humans are indeed, at the centre of all of God’s awesome creatures and creations. That central  position in creation saddles us all at varying degrees, as individuals, leaders of thoughts, heads of families, secular leaders, heads of spiritual organizations, traditional leaders as well as players in the political structure of society.

What really defines your happiness and the happiness of the human race does not dwell in the calibrations of the Gregorian calendar or any other known calendar at that but in the newness of our mindsets, thoughts, attitudes, actions and character.

I can be a better version of myself this year than I was last year. You too can! And that should be our individual and collective priority to enhance our individual as well as collective happiness as we concentrate on optimizing our talents, temperaments, skills and education towards adding value to the lives of other people around us via the tangible products and or services we render to society.

Once again, I would rather wish you a happy new YOU in the New Year!

Olufemi Orunsola is a Social Commentator and the current Coordinator, Training, Extension Services & Consultancy (TEC), at Moshood Abiola Polytechnic’s Centre for Entrepreneurship Development (MAPCED), Abeokuta, Ogun State, Nigeria.

FOOTNOTE: You want to share story with us? You want to advertise with us? You need publicity for product, or service, or   event? Contact us on WhatsApp +2348073463653 or email [email protected]